White Sweet Clover, Melilotus alba , plants of the Eloise Butler Wild Flower Garden

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	White Sweet Clover Yellow Sweet clover	Melilotus alba Medikus - variant of Melilotus officinalis (L.) Lam.	Pea	Woodland and Upland	Early to Late Summer
Other names and notes	Most sources, including USDA and the Minnesota Vascular Plants List of the U of M, consider M. alba to be simply a color variant of Yellow Sweet Clover, M. officinalis. Except for the color of the flowers, both are erect annual to biennial invasive plants. The flowers are 5-parted, small, 1/8" to 1/4" long, stalked, and appear in 4" tall, long-stalked clusters on many widely branching stems. Leaves are 3-parted oblong leaflets with the middle leaflet on a short stalk. As a biennial (usually the case in Minnesota) the flowers appear on 2nd year plants. Seeds are viable in the ground for 30 years. The genus name Melilotus comes from Mel meaning "honey" and lotus, meaning "honey-lotus", all referring to the plant being a favorite of bees.

Left: Yellow Sweet Clover (Melilotus officinalis (L.) Lam.)

Several differences between the yellow and the white have been noted: Yellow is shorter and blooms slightly earlier. Otherwise there are no noticeable differences.

Photo left ©Kitty Kohout, Freckmann Herbarium, University of Wisconsin, Steven’s Point

Notes: This is a non-native plant, now naturalized all over the United States and found in most counties of Minnesota. It was listed on Martha Crone's 1951 Garden Census. It is listed as a non-native invasive in most states, including Minnesota. In the western states in the national parks and monuments it has taken over great swaths of roadside and fields. The plant arrived in the United States from Europe in the 1600's. Lore: The plant has some very early history of medicinal use as an emollient and digestive. The entire plant would be dried and then in solution would come out the active ingredient, Coumarin. While the plant was not widely found in Great Britain, Gerard did write about it and in regards the plant's invasive character he had this to say:

"For certainty no part of the world doth enjoy so great plenty thereof as England and especially Essex, for I have seen between Sudbury in Suffolke and Clare in Essex and from Clare to Hessingham very many acres of earable pasture overgrowne with the same; in so much that it doth not only spoil their land, but the corn also, as Cockle or Darnel and is a weed that generally spreadeth over that corner of the shire." John Gerard (1545-1612) Gerard's Herbal.

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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

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